[Reportbug-maint] Bug#642096: Unable to create configuration file (UnicodeEncodeError)

[Torquil Macdonald Sørensen]

Package: reportbug
Version: 6.2.1
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

    * What led up to the situation?

In order to solve another reportbug problem (#), I moved my .reportbugrc
away from ~, in order to make reportbug regenerate a fresh configuration. Since 
reportbug doesn't work on my system right now, I'm reporting this through 
ordinary email.


    * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
      ineffective)?

Then I ran 'reportbug', and it started to prompt me for information, as
expected. Transcript is given below.


    * What was the outcome of this action?

reportbug crashed, I think due to a non-ascii latter in my name? See
transcript.


    * What outcome did you expect instead?

I expected reportbug to create a configuration file, even though
my name is not pure ascii. The problem goes away if I change my name to 
something ascii.


Transcript of reportbug session after removing .reportbugrc:

tmac at asus:~$ reportbug
Welcome to reportbug! Since it looks like this is the first time you have used 
reportbug, we are configuring its behavior. These settings will be saved to the 
file "/home/tmac/.reportbugrc",
which you will be free to edit further.
Please choose the default operating mode for reportbug.

1 novice    Offer simple prompts, bypassing technical questions.

2 standard  Offer more extensive prompts, including asking about things that a 
moderately sophisticated user would be expected to know about Debian.

3 advanced  Like standard, but assumes you know a bit more about Debian, 
including "incoming".

4 expert    Bypass most handholding measures and preliminary triage routines. 
This mode should not be used by people unfamiliar with Debian's policies and 
operating procedures.

Select mode: [novice] 3
Will reportbug often have direct Internet access? (You should answer yes to this 
question unless you know what you are doing and plan to check whether duplicate 
reports have been filed via
some other channel.) [Y|n|q|?]?
What real name should be used for sending bug reports?
[Torquil Macdonald Sørensen]>
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/usr/bin/reportbug", line 2186, in <module>
     main()
   File "/usr/bin/reportbug", line 1073, in main
     return iface.user_interface()
   File "/usr/bin/reportbug", line 1189, in user_interface
     offer_configuration(self.options)
   File "/usr/bin/reportbug", line 573, in offer_configuration
     realname = realname.decode(charset, 'replace')
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/encodings/utf_8.py", line 16, in decode
     return codecs.utf_8_decode(input, errors, True)
UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xf8' in position 19: 
ordinal not in range(128)


Best regards
Torquil Sørensen


-- Package-specific info:
** Environment settings:
EDITOR="nano"
DEBEMAIL="torquil at gmail.com"
DEBFULLNAME="Torquil Macdonald Sørensen"

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
   APT prefers unstable
   APT policy: (700, 'unstable'), (600, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.0.4 (SMP w/2 CPU cores; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages reportbug depends on:
ii  apt               0.8.15.8
ii  python            2.7.2-5
ii  python-reportbug  6.2.1

reportbug recommends no packages.

Versions of packages reportbug suggests:
ii  debconf-utils                            <none>
ii  debsums                                  <none>
ii  dlocate                                  <none>
ii  emacs22-bin-common | emacs23-bin-common  <none>
ii  file                                     5.08-1
ii  gnupg                                    1.4.11-3
ii  postfix | exim4 | mail-transport-agent   <none>
ii  python-gtk2                              <none>
ii  python-gtkspell                          <none>
ii  python-urwid                             <none>
ii  python-vte                               <none>
ii  xdg-utils                                1.1.0~rc1-2

-- no debconf information